The story of my hormones the last couple years

In 2005 our family went to a family reunion in Missourri. I was due to get my period and didn't, but I did start feeling pregnant the pregnancy test was negative. I missed three periods and then had a really heavy one in August. On Friday I bled very heavy all day, but just figured I was having a miscarriage and dealt with it. On Saturday my husband Brent had to work by the time he got home I was lying on the couch and feeling extremely disconnected from my body. He said I was as white as a ghost and debated on taking me to the ER. He asked our daughters if they knew what I would do for someone that was sick like me and they said probably green drink. So he told them to make me one ASAP. I drank that and took chlorophyl and was feeling better in no time. The bleeding had stopped by the time he found me, but I was still suffering from the effects of a heavy cycle.

After that incident I went another 3 months without a period, once again all the pregnancy tests were negative. I December 2005 I had another period that lasted 5 weeks, this time I went to the Dr. in Jan 2006 and was diagnosed with PCOS. I was given the option of birth control pills and didn't feel right about doing that. I talked to a man at church that was a Chinese Medicine Dr. and got a perscription from him and had pretty good success with it. In Aug 2007 My oldest started dated a wonderful young man and during that fall I had two episodes of fainting while on my period and really bad cramping. I had run out of my chinese herbs and decided not to order any more. My daughter was married on Nov. 28 and on Dec 1 I collapsed with ovarian pain. It didn't make sense because I just finished a normal period. My husband took me to urgent med, because it was Sunday and they said yep you have ovarian pain and gave me pain meds, on Monday he took me to the ER where they did an unltra sound and said that I had no cysts left except for one large one on my right ovary. Brent then called an OB-GYN in town and they aggreed to see my the next day. The Dr. felt like the cyst needed to be removed immediately so I went in for surgery the following morning. After surgery I was told that it wasn't a cyst afterall but a tumor. We waited 2 weeks to get pathology reports saying it was not cancerous.

Three months later I was in the Dr office with lack of a cycle. He put me progesterone, which caused really long cyles that were heavy and painful. After 3 months of that I went back and was told to be patient it should get better. The PMS grew so severe that I became somewhat suicidal and my family said that I was unbearable to be around. I called and talked to my Drs nurse numerous times and finally went back in to see the Dr. this time I was put on Meteformin which made me extremly ill, so I only took it for about a week and went back to see the Dr. This time I told him that if it is neccessary for me to take progesterone and the metformin that he would also have to put me on an antidepressant. He said that if I wanted to get pregnant that I would probably need to see an infertility specialist at this point. I was really only interested in being a normal 38 year old woman and having my energy back. We decided that I wasn't going to take the progesterone or the metformin anymore and the Dr. announced to me that I was in the beginning stages of menopause. I AM 38 YEARS OLD HOW CAN THAT BE?!?!?!?

That brings me to today! Here I sit typing all of this still waiting to have a period after 3 months. I actually didn't have one the last two months I was on the progesterone. I have an appointment to see a specialist in Dec. to get another opinion of what is going on with my body. I am hoping for some answers even if they aren't exactly what I want to hear.

Oct 7, 2008 A place to share and vent

This is the first of what I hope to be many entries. I created this blog to be a place to document the difficulties, triumphs, and frustrations of being a 30 something woman who has been told that she is menopausal. My hope is to relieve my own stress and let other women going through premature menopause know that they aren't alone as well as documenting this journey for my daughters.

The last two years have found me skipping periods for long periods of time and having a period that lasted 5 weeks. I have been diagnosed with PCOS, had an ovary removed because of a beneign tumor, and then been diagnosed with menopause after being on progesterone for several months and having severe PMS and depression with the hormones. I was also on metformin for a few days, but got so sick from it that I quit taking it.

I recently started reading a book that suggests that testosterone with estrogen is the best therapy for menopausal women. I looked up the suggested website for finding a Dr. that specializes in the care of menopausal women. I will be traveling about an hour and a half to go see a Dr. in Dec.

That is a brief outline of what is going on. Later I will go into more detail (not too much), on how my health problems have affected my marriage and what we are doing to try to fix the problem. I have been dealing with symptoms for years and didn't realize it until they were so severe and obvious that I had to do something about it.